Podcasts about cpms

In dieser Folge des Onlineshop Geflüster Podcasts sprechen wir darüber, wie du deine Werbeanzeigen in der Feiertagssaison strategisch clever steuerst – ohne in Stress oder Panik-Modus zu verfallen. Du erfährst, welche Kampagnen du jetzt priorisieren solltest, wie du mit steigenden CPMs und schwankender Performance umgehst und worauf du achten musst, um trotz Feiertagstrubel profitabel zu bleiben. Viel Spaß beim Anhören! Dein Berend. __________ Mache den ersten Schritt und buche dir eine kostenlose SHOPANALYSE: https://www.berend-heins.de/termin Wenn du sofort tiefer einsteigen willst: Hol dir mit unserem Onlinekurs die kugelsichere Komplettanleitung für profitable Meta Ads im eCommerce.

This week I had the chance to sit down with two fascinating guests who are at the forefront of bridging the worlds of digital performance marketing and traditional television advertising. Nick Fairbairn, VP of Growth Marketing at Chime, and Andy Schonfeld, CRO at Tatari, walked me through how they've transformed Chime from a pure digital-first, DTC neobank brand built on social and search into a sophisticated advertiser that runs television campaigns with the same performance mindset they apply to Meta and Google. Their partnership has evolved from small linear TV tests six years ago to a comprehensive full-funnel TV strategy that blends brand building with direct response metrics.Nick and Andy shared incredible insights into the evolution of performance TV, from navigating the COVID-era inventory opportunities to understanding why linear TV still matters even as streaming dominates the conversation. They explained how Chime approaches television with a portfolio strategy, balancing premium reach moments like live sports with more targeted direct response placements, and why creative and media planning have become the "new targeting" in a world where precise one-to-one identification remains expensive and imperfect. We also dove into the challenges of measuring TV in a fragmented landscape, the role of AI-driven creative, and whether shoppable TV will actually move the needle or remain a marginal innovation. Key HighlightsHere's a shorter version:

In dieser Folge des Onlineshop Geflüster Podcasts sprechen wir darüber, wie du deine Werbeanzeigen in der Feiertagssaison strategisch clever steuerst – ohne in Stress oder Panik-Modus zu verfallen. Du erfährst, welche Kampagnen du jetzt priorisieren solltest, wie du mit steigenden CPMs und schwankender Performance umgehst und worauf du achten musst, um trotz Feiertagstrubel profitabel zu bleiben. Viel Spaß beim Anhören! Dein Berend. __________ Mache den ersten Schritt und buche dir eine kostenlose SHOPANALYSE: https://www.berend-heins.de/termin Wenn du sofort tiefer einsteigen willst: Hol dir mit unserem Onlinekurs die kugelsichere Komplettanleitung für profitable Meta Ads im eCommerce.

I sat down with Tusar Barik, the SVP of Marketing at the New York Times, who's just past his first year in this newly created role. We explored how the Times has transformed from a traditional newspaper into a multifaceted media company spanning news, games, podcasts, cooking, sports, and more. Tusar leads a comprehensive team managing everything from measurement and data insights to product marketing, editorial advertising opportunities, and traditional communications. What struck me most was learning that the Times now reaches over 150 million registered users with 50 to 100 million weekly engagers, seeing the highest growth among Gen Z adults and audiences in the Midwest and South. The digital advertising business delivered over 20% year-over-year growth, proving that quality journalism and a direct relationship with readers creates a powerhouse advertising platform.We dove deep into how the Times is meeting consumers where they are through video-forward strategies, producing over 75 hours of professional video monthly and transforming podcasts into multimodal shows available as both audio and video. Tusar shared insights on their Brand Match generative AI product that delivers 30% improvements in both click-through rates and brand lift by intelligently matching advertiser briefs with the right content. We explored how games like Wordle have been part of the Times' DNA since the 1940s crossword, how The Daily creates deeply personal connections with millions, and why the Times sees itself as a solar system with news at the center. The conversation revealed a company that's successfully balanced subscription-first strategy with a thriving advertising business by staying true to its mission while innovating how it reaches and serves audiences._______________________________________________Key Highlights

Description: In this episode, we sit down with a Dr. Craig Ott, a professor at Trinity International University, to explore whether the Book of Acts reveals patterns of movements—or if that's reading too much into the text. Together, we unpack powerful themes of growth, opposition, and multiplication that echo from Genesis through Acts and into today's disciple-making movements (DMMs) and church-planting movements (CPMs). Whether you're a church leader, missionary, or simply curious about biblical movements, this episode offers rich insights into how Acts continues to shape our understanding of gospel expansion today.

Send us a textIn this episode, Jeremy breaks down one of the most overlooked—but most profitable—windows in the entire sports marketing calendar: Q5, the five-to-seven-day stretch between Christmas and New Year's. While big advertisers shut down campaigns and CPMs plummet, fans are at home scrolling with gift cards, holiday cash, and a “treat yourself” mindset. Jeremy explains why Q5 consistently delivers cheaper traffic, higher conversions, and a massive edge for teams who prepare simple, compelling offers. You'll walk away with tactical ideas, best practices, and pitfalls to avoid so you can win that week without increasing your budget.Key Topics CoveredWhat Q5 is and why marketers consider it the “hidden fifth quarter.”Why ad costs drop 20–50% and how sports teams can capitalizeThe psychological mindset of fans between Christmas and New Year'sThe four big benefits of Q5: cheaper ads, impulse buying, treat-yourself energy, and better-performing creativeTactical promos perfect for Q5: mystery packs, January/February packs, flash offers, family-focused bundlesWhy storytelling ads and light content crush during this windowWhat NOT to do during Q5 (complicated offers, pausing spend, ignoring warm audiences)How Q5 builds momentum for January–March ticket salesSuggested Timestamps00:00 — What is Q5 and why sports teams ignore it 01:06 — Why advertisers disappear (and why that's good for you) 03:33 — Cheaper CPMs, CPCs, and conversions: the Q5 advantage 05:55 — The “treat yourself” mindset and holiday buyer psychology 08:15 — Q5 offer ideas: mystery packs, winter ticket packs, flash promos 10:27 — Using content to cheaply warm audiences 11:38 — Q5 cautions and best practices 12:49 — Final thoughts + why Q5 is the easiest win of the yearCall to ActionGot a Q5 idea you want to pressure test? Want help shaping an offer, promotion, or ad angle for that week? Send Jeremy a message or schedule a quick 10–20 minute call to brainstorm your Q5 plan and set up your January–March sales for a major lift.Sports Marketing Machine on LinkedInSports Marketing Machine on InstagramBook a call with Jeremy from Sports Marketing Machine

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupEric sits down with Anthony DelPizzo, Director of Product Marketing at Triple Whale, to unpack what actually happened across $2.9B in tracked revenue and $607M in ad spend. This episode is your shortcut to what worked, what didn't, and what's next.Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2025 is in the books — and Triple Whale tracked every click, conversion, and creative that moved the needle.View the Report: triplewhale.comWhat's inside:Why new customers made up 48% of BFCM revenue — and what that means for retention nowTikTok's surge: ROAS up 28%, CPMs down 30% — here's why brands shiftedGoogle and Meta platform breakdown: who won, who lost, and who overchargedWhat Triple Whale's real-time BFCM Live dashboard revealed in secondsHow Mobi AI became the virtual teammate nearly 50,000 brands relied on mid-saleIf you're a DTC marketer, growth lead, media buyer, retention strategists, or anyone planning for 2026 Q4, this episode is a must listen.Timestamps00:00 BFCM early surge and overall sales performance02:00 New vs returning customer trends and major revenue drivers04:00 Rising ad costs and platform efficiency shifts06:00 TikTok, AppLovin and alternative channels gaining traction08:00 Email and SMS insights from post-purchase data10:00 Meta and Google cost changes and ROAS movement12:00 Diversification and placement performance on major platforms14:00 Category winners and unit economics16:00 Shopify outage and real-time data advantages18:00 How brands used Moby AI for BFCM decision-making20:00 Top lessons for brands heading into 2026Hashtags#DTC #TripleWhale #BFCM2025 #EcommerceMarketing #DigitalAdvertising #MetaAds #GoogleAds #TikTokAds #Attribution #MarketingData #AIForMarketing #MobyAI #Shopify #PerformanceMarketing #OmnichannelMarketing Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouseFollow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Matthew Bertram and Chris Krimitsos dive into how creators and brands can grow faster together amid an AI content surge, with real case studies from Podfest and beyond. We map a practical playbook: entity SEO, the 7-11-4 rule, a clip-first workflow, and partnership models that beat CPMs.• creator economy trends and the shift to video• long form for trust, shorts for discovery• entity SEO, consistent handles and domains• the 7-11-4 rule for brand familiarity• platform economics with YouTube as home base• partnership deals beyond CPMs and MGs• measuring hidden ROI and affiliate leakage• NIL, rights and repurposing content• brand control vs creator authenticity• B2B adoption steps, timelines and testsGuest Contact Information: Website: chriskrimitsos.comInstagram: instagram.com/chriskrimitsosFacebook: facebook.com/chriskrimitsosX: x.com/chriskrimitsosMore from EWR and Matthew:Leave us a review wherever you listen: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Amazon PodcastFree SEO Consultation: www.ewrdigital.com/discovery-callWith over 5 million downloads, The Best SEO Podcast has been the go-to show for digital marketers, business owners, and entrepreneurs wanting real-world strategies to grow online. Now, host Matthew Bertram — creator of LLM Visibility™ and the LLM Visibility Stack™, and Lead Strategist at EWR Digital — takes the conversation beyond traditional SEO into the AI era of discoverability. Each week, Matthew dives into the tactics, frameworks, and insights that matter most in a world where search engines, large language models, and answer engines are reshaping how people find, trust, and choose businesses. From SEO and AI-driven marketing to executive-level growth strategy, you'll hear expert interviews, deep-dive discussions, and actionable strategies to help you stay ahead of the curve. Find more episodes here: youtube.com/@BestSEOPodcastbestseopodcast.combestseopodcast.buzzsprout.comFollow us on:Facebook: @bestseopodcastInstagram: @thebestseopodcastTiktok: @bestseopodcastLinkedIn: @bestseopodcastConnect With Matthew Bertram: Website: www.matthewbertram.comInstagram: @matt_bertram_liveLinkedIn: @mattbertramlivePowered by: ewrdigital.comSupport the show

If you've ever felt the December–January dip creeping up on your ecommerce store, this episode is your roadmap for keeping revenue flowing while everyone else is blaming the season.In today's chat, we break down the exact strategies we use with clients to turn what most brands call “the dead months” into some of their highest-performing periods.We cover:How to convert Christmas shoppers fast — including urgent gift-card pushes, festive bundles, tiered discounts and the psychology behind shipping cutoff urgency.Bounce-back promos that beat traditional discounts — so December revenue fuels your January sales without destroying margin.Mystery bundles that boost dopamine + AOV — low-cost, high-fun offers like Summer Mystery Bags and Reset Boxes that convert even when motivation is low.“New Year, New Routine” quiz funnels — why early January is the BEST time to launch a personalised routine finder that nurtures customers into long-term buyers.January's secret weapon: awareness-based UGC — cheaper CPMs, more scrolling, and the exact content styles that grow your brand while everyone else goes quiet.If you want your ecommerce store to stay profitable through the holidays and set up a strong Q1, this episode gives you the playbook.

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupJocelyn from Pilothouse breaks down how their team stays aggressive, adapts fast, and helps clients scale efficiently—even on the actual day of Black Friday.For media buyers and growth teams optimizing in real-time...What to do when your CPMs and CACs spike day-ofWhy legacy evergreen might outperform your BFCM creativeThe one Canva trick Jocelyn uses to refresh high-cost ads fastWhat Rebuy is and how it helped one brand double YoY revenueHow Pilothouse pushes Meta's algorithm before it catches trend shiftsWho this is for: DTC brands, marketers, and performance teams deep in BFCM trench warfareWhat to steal:Canva border hack to make organic product shots pop for BFCMSimplify site UX: static banners, one clear offer, above-the-fold CTADon't trust one dashboard—use the data triangle: Shopify, Meta, Triple WhaleTimestamps00:00 Black Friday PPC shifts and customer acquisition02:05 Scrappy creatives that cut CPMs and boost conversions04:20 Top of funnel focus and new customer strategies06:30 Website optimizations to increase conversion rate today08:50 How one brand hit 100 percent year over year growth11:10 Dealing with delayed attribution and platform discrepancies13:15 How Rebuy boosts AOV and top line revenue15:20 Guiding the algorithm and deep audience persona testing17:35 Wellness category trends and emerging demo shifts18:55 Healthier on-platform metrics through segmentationHashtags#dtcpodcast #blackfridaymarketing #ecommercetips #pilothouse #metaads #googleads #paidmedia #shopifybrands #rebuy #conversionrateoptimization #ecomstrategy #digitalmarketingtips Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://www.pilothouse.co/?utm_source=AKNF563Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

In this episode of Seceret to Scaling your Ecommerce Brand, Jordan West and Zohaib from Refundle break down exactly how brands can scale from 0 to 7 figures on TikTok Shop using creators, content strategy, CPM arbitrage, and whitelisting.We cover the real reasons TikTok Shop works, how to build creator communities, how to repurpose UGC across every platform, and why attribution is broken in 2025. You'll learn how to reach out to affiliates, how many samples you should send, how to increase GMV from live shopping, and the exact playbook top-performing brands are using right now.If you want to grow your TikTok Shop, lower CPMs, and scale organic + paid through creators, this episode gives you the full blueprint.===============================

This roundtable explores how B2B teams can use modern demand strategies, B2C channels, and incrementality testing to prove true ad impact in 2026. The conversation highlights omni-channel expansion beyond LinkedIn, data-driven measurement, and practical ways to validate lift across pipeline and revenue.Speakers and RolesMatt Sciannella – Host and practitioner running paid media for multiple B2B clients; shares real client use cases, lift results, and practical frameworks for measurement and experimentation.Keith Putnam-Delaney – CEO of Primer; former Dropbox growth leader; expert in B2B expansion into B2C channels, audience targeting, mobile–desktop measurement problems, match rates, and lift testing.Authority: Both speakers bring hands-on experience running B2B paid programs at scale and deep insight into attribution limits, ABM constraints, and cross-channel growth strategies.Topics CoveredRising costs and saturation in traditional B2B channels (LinkedIn, Google).Why B2B brands must expand into B2C channels like Meta, YouTube, Reddit, TikTok.Mobile vs. desktop measurement gaps and cross-device limitations.Signal loss, attribution decay, and the need for server-side events.How to validate true impact using lift tests and incrementality.CPM efficiency comparisons across channels.ABM unbundling and alternatives to large, monolithic ABM platforms.Using holdout groups, geographic lift, and omnichannel testing strategies.Real client examples showing lift in inbound, share of search, and revenue.How audience targeting tools unlock TAM expansion outside LinkedIn.Questions This Video Helps AnswerHow do B2B marketers prove real ad impact without relying on last-touch attribution?How can brands expand beyond LinkedIn and still target ICP buyers effectively?What causes demand generation inefficiency and how do you fix it?How do mobile–desktop and cross-device gaps distort performance data?What is the right way to design lift tests or incrementality experiments?How can small TAM companies still scale using B2C channels?What alternative ABM workflows exist beyond large enterprise platforms?How should B2B teams interpret rising CPMs and shrinking reach?Jobs, Roles, and Responsibilities MentionedB2B growth marketingGrowth teamsSales operations managersRevenue operations rolesVPs of MarketingRegional sales directorsMedical device surgeons (ICP example)Marketing, sales, financeInfosec teamsPLG teamsField marketingOutbound sales teamsKey TakeawaysAttribution alone cannot prove channel value; lift tests reveal true incrementality.B2B audiences exist far beyond LinkedIn, and CPM efficiency is often dramatically higher on Meta, Reddit, and YouTube.Mobile-heavy consumption breaks MTA models; server-side signals and conversion APIs are now essential.ABM can be unbundled using smaller, more flexible tools and alternative data sources.Expanding TAM and using audience targeting unlocks more reach and stronger pipeline outcomes.Share of search is a powerful leading indicator for demand creation impact.Omnichannel experimentation paired with structured test design improves confidence with finance and executive teams.Frameworks and Concepts MentionedIncrementality testingHoldout groupsChannel-based lift testsGeographic lift testsAccount list split testingLeading vs. lagging indicatorsShare of search analysisServer-side conversion APIs (CAPI)Cross-device measurementAudience match ratesABM unbundlingCPM efficiency analysis

Show Resources Jack Caspino's LinkedIn profile - follow and connect! Join the LinkedIn Ads Fanatics and get access to our 4 courses to take you from beginner to expert. Just hit 100 members so a shoutout to our awesome LI Ads fanatics for making it such an awesome community! Rate/Review Contact us with any questions, suggestions, or corrections! Summary In this episode of the LinkedIn Ads Show, AJ is joined by Jack Caspino, founder of ContactLevel, to dive deep into one of the most powerful – and misunderstood – tools in your LinkedIn arsenal: data enrichment for list uploads. We break down exactly how Jack is turning 40% match rates into near-100% by enriching B2B contact lists with consumer identifiers, then syncing those hyper-accurate audiences across major platforms to reach the same people everywhere for less. You'll hear a real-life case study from one of our clients, smart tactics for making the most of very small audiences (like duplicating campaigns to reset CPMs, using Thought Leader Ads and boosted posts, and layering in LinkedIn Audience Network and CTV strategically), plus a peek into ContactLevel's CRM integrations, workflow automations, and upcoming roadmap. We also kick things off with important LinkedIn platform updates you need to know—recent delivery issues with manual bidding, ad personalization, multi-format campaigns, dwell time changes, and the new campaign/ad set naming. Listen to learn how to see your own enriched match rates in action. Transcript For the full show transcript, see the show notes page here: Episode 166

Marketers have long optimised for visibility and memory, but in our metric-focused industry, are we measuring what really matters?In this episode of the Smarter Marketer Podcast, host James Lawrence speaks with Dr. Karen Nelson-Field, Founder of Amplified, about why attention is the real currency of modern advertising and how to measure it effectively. From the myth of virality to the flaws in CPMs, Karen shares what years of research reveal about how people truly engage with ads, and what marketers need to do next to stay ahead.Key Takeaways:Dr. Karen's journey: from academic researcher to founder, shaping the global conversation on attention measurementWhy traditional metrics like reach, impressions and engagement fail to capture real ad effectivenessHow attention measurement works and why it's revolutionising media planning and buyingThe difference between active, passive and non-attention, and how they impact ROIWhy CPM should stand for “Cost per Meaningless Thousand”How creative and media need to work together for attention to truly convertWhy cheaper ad formats often deliver worse ROI than expectedThe role of AI and synthetic audiences in scaling attention measurementThe future: the unification of creative and media through AI-driven toolsAdditional resource: The Eye-Watering Cost of Dull MediaGuest:Dr. Karen Nelson-Field is a globally recognised researcher and entrepreneur reshaping how marketers think about effectiveness. As the Founder and CEO of Amplified, she leads pioneering work in attention measurement across platforms and formats. A former academic turned industry innovator, Karen's research has influenced how the world's biggest brands evaluate advertising performance. Find Us Online:James Lawrence LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameslawrenceoz/ Smarter Marketer Website: https://rocketagency.com.au/smarter-marketer-podcast Rocket Agency Website: https://rocketagency.com.au/ Rocket Agency LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocket-agency-pty-ltd/Buy Smarter Marketer:Hardcover: https://amzn.to/30O63kg Kindle: https://amzn.to/2ZqfCWm About the Podcast:This is the definitive podcast for Australian marketers. Join Rocket Agency Co-Founder and best-selling author, James Lawrence in conversation with marketers, leaders, and thinkers about what it takes to be a smarter and more successful marketer.

It's often said that for e-commerce brands, the holiday season is the 5th quarter of the year. Sue Azari, e-commerce industry lead at AppsFlyer, joins Taylor Lobdell for a tactical breakdown of how the smartest e-commerce apps move from Q4 user acquisition to Q5 retention and remarketing. From UK and EMEA trends to global shifts in spend, Sue details why remarketing spend surges fivefold at the end of the year, how loyalty and personalization schemes actually drive a second purchase, and what makes non-organic installs disproportionately valuable for real app revenue. Referencing real examples from brands like Zara, H&M, Temu, and Shein, Sue lays out the structural shifts, practical tactics, and emerging risks facing every marketer trying to build durable, app-based revenue in a volatile global market.Key topics and questionsThe in-house consultant role at AppsFlyer and its cross-functional focusHow the UK's mature e-commerce market shapes global strategiesWhy Q5 matters, and how its install/revenue spike emergedWhen and why remarketing eclipses UA spendTactics for turning a Q4 buyer into a repeat customer in Q5Personalization, loyalty, and exclusive drops to drive frequencyUGC, influencer content, and AI tools for creative ideationWhat e-commerce needs to steal from gaming's diversified media mixWhy DSPs and Reddit remain underused in e-commercePaid–organic uplift: why half of installs deliver three-quarters of revenueHow to respond to high December CPMs and new market entrantsThe 70-20-10 rule for channel testingGlobal UA patterns: Android vs iOS, tariffs, rapid spend reallocationQR codes, in-store modes, and the app as a bridge to physical retailSegmentation: why abandon basket and uninstalled users matter mostStaying current in a market defined by privacy shifts and macro volatilityTimestamps(0:03) – Intro, Sue's cross-functional role and background(1:11) – UK and EMEA, market maturity, lessons, and cross-region strategy(2:52) – Defining Q5, why end-of-year cycles matter for apps and travel(4:10) – Black Friday: remarketing spend is five times UA at peak(5:03) – Tactics: loyalty, personalization, and getting to the second purchase(6:12) – Creative best practices, UGC, influencers, and new AI tools(7:02) – Diversifying media, DSPs, app-to-app installs, and what e-commerce misses(7:55) – Community and AI as emerging channels(9:13) – Paid–organic uplift, nearly three-quarters of revenue is non-organic(10:38) – Coping with high CPMs, moving spend, leaning on owned media(11:43) – Testing new channels; the 70-20-10 rule for risk(13:47) – Regional differences in UA: China, tariffs, and aggressive spend moves(17:00) – How Sue tracks trends, privacy changes, and new industry moves(17:32) – Temu/Shein: billion-dollar UA, loyalty pivots, and physical store expansions(19:42) – QR codes, attribution, and bridging digital and physical with apps(20:51) – Retargeting segments: abandon basket and uninstalled users(21:46) – Lightning round: favorite channels, brands, tactics, and London recommendationsSelected quotes(4:13) – “When we look at spend, remarketing spend is five times that of UA for e-commerce apps during the end of Q4.”(10:06) – “Nearly three quarters of purchase revenue comes from non-organic sources. Users are much more likely to buy something if they've been driven to the app by a particular marketing campaign.”(21:01) – “Abandoned baskets are my primary focus for remarketing, because 70% of users who install an e-commerce app will abandon their basket. The other one that I think is not as commonly done, but I think it's very valuable, is remarketing to uninstalled users.”Mentioned in this episodeAppsFlyerSue Azari on Linkedin

In this episode of The Sleeping Barber Podcast, Marc and Vassilis sit down with Adam Morgan (Eat Big Fish) and Dr. Karen Nelson-Field (Amplified Intelligence) to talk about one of marketing's most overlooked money pits — dull media.You've heard of dull ads — but what about dull media?From perfume that smells like burning money to attention metrics that flip our measurement logic upside down, this conversation exposes how marketers might be wasting more budget on where they show up than what they show.Together, they unpack:Why the real cost of dullness might live in your media plan, not your creative.The massive gap between viewable and actually seen impressions.How cheap CPMs can quietly destroy ROI.Why challenger brands suffer most when attention is lost.And why the smartest marketers start from one brutal truth: nobody cares — so make them.It's a lively, insightful, and often hilarious conversation that will make you rethink everything from your media mix to your measurement frameworks.Key TakeawaysDull media wastes more money than dull creative.Attention metrics are becoming the new standard.“Viewable” ≠ “Seen.” Stop confusing impressions with impact.The cheapest media often delivers the lowest ROI — a false economy.Challenger brands face double jeopardy when cutting corners on attention.Budget pressure is no excuse for bad planning.Attention isn't a metric — it's a design principle.Marketers must challenge models built on impression volume.Setting the bar higher is the only way to make media work harder.Removing waste and reinvesting in effective attention drives better results.Chapters00:00 - Introduction to Dull Media and Marketing Waste03:06 - The Cost of Dull Media vs. Dull Creative06:00 - The Impact of Media Delivery Mechanisms08:55 - The Concept of Seen vs. Unseen in Advertising12:02 - Innovative Approaches to Highlighting Media Waste15:01 - Attention Metrics and Their Importance18:06 - The Challenge of Changing Industry Standards20:53 - The Role of Budget Pressures in Media Choices26:48 - Challenging Assumptions in Media Engagement30:34 - The Cost of Dull Media34:06 - The Double Jeopardy for Challenger Brands38:46 - Understanding Attention as a Design Principle42:30 - Setting the Bar Higher for Media EffectivenessSupporting Links:The Extraordinary Cost of Dull - System1 GroupThe Cost of Dull Media | Dr Karen Nelson-Field (amplified.co)Le Cout Dennui - The 198bn Cost Of Dull Media

Plötzlich zahlst du doppelt so viel pro Klick – obwohl du gar nichts geändert hast? Das liegt selten nur am Wettbewerb, sondern fast immer an deinem Kampagnen-Setup selbst. In dieser Folge zeige ich dir, warum deine Klickpreise und CPMs explodieren, welche Ursachen du Schritt für Schritt prüfen solltest und wie du deine Kampagnen wieder stabilisierst – ohne mehr Budget zu verbrennen. Ich erkläre dir außerdem, wann Eingreifen sinnvoll ist – und wann du besser einfach mal nichts tust. Viele Marketer schieben steigende Klickpreise auf „den Markt“. Doch in über 80 % der Fälle liegt das Problem im eigenen Konto: falsche Signale, fehlerhafte Gebotsstrategien oder instabile Lernphasen. In dieser Episode erfährst du: - Welche Ursachen deine steigenden Klickpreise oder CPMs wirklich haben - Wie du Tracking-Fehler erkennst und behebst - Warum Google und Meta manchmal „in Panik“ bieten - Wann du Kampagnen laufen lassen solltest – und wann du eingreifen musst - Wie du mit Hilfs-Conversions und stabilen Strategien bessere Ergebnisse erzielst Zum Schluss bekommst du meinen 4-Schritte-Plan, um deine Ads-Kosten wieder in den Griff zu bekommen – egal ob Google oder Meta.

In this Two & a Half Gamers special, Felix Braberg breaks down how to maximize ad monetization during Black Friday weekend - the new “Q5” for mobile games.

Billboards at $0.75 CPM. Streaming TV you can actually measure. Tim Rowe breaks down how to blend OOH + CTV to drop blended CAC, spark geo-lift, and build “living-room” brand equity—without massive budgets.Streaming has turned TV into a performance channel you can buy, cap, and measure like digital—often at CPMs rivaling or beating social. Tim explains how their ad server + pixel connect living-room exposure to down-funnel actions, with many brands seeing $3–$4 cost per visit and 3–4× higher conversion vs other traffic sources. On OOH, the overlooked arbitrage is static or digital boards priced like real estate: win by buying the biggest formats in the largest markets at the lowest biddable entry price, then engineer earned media (social virality) and geo-lift. Start with ~$5k for a real CTV test (smaller tests can still work as an add-on), measure blended CAC, branded search, and market-level lift, and let creative—not hyper-granular targeting—do the heavy lifting.GuestWebsite: https://cognitionads.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/troweactualX (Twitter): https://x.com/oohinsiderTim's newsletter/resource hub: https://stateofstreaming.com/What You'll LearnWhy streaming made TV relevant again—and cheap ($1–$2 CPMs in some geos).How to attribute TV exposure → search → site visit → purchase within a 48-hour view-through window.The out-of-home (OOH) arbitrage: buying big signs in big markets for sub-$1 CPMs.How OOH + CTV lower blended CAC and lift branded search in target geographies.Practical first tests: budgets, pixels, frequency caps, creative, and geo measurement.Event playbooks: digital billboard trucks, rideshare screens, street teams, and QR flows.Targeting reality: on CTV, less targeting often wins—use creative as the filter.Retargeting on TV (yes): pixel site traffic and follow with CTV/audio/display.Timestamps & Chapters00:00 — Why TV is “back”: streaming CPMs and geo-targeted buys01:30 — Direct attribution: 48-hour view-through from TV → search → site → purchase03:45 — OOH primer: static vs digital, programmatic buys, and PMP tips06:05 — The arbitrage: big boards, big markets, tiny CPMs (often

MOVE SUPPLY CHAINPay less for COGS, get shorter lead times, and improve payment terms in your supply chain with help from Move Supply Chain at https://⁠movesupplychain.com⁠.RICHPANELCut your support costs by 30% and reduce tickets by 30%—guaranteed—with Richpanel's AI-first Customer Service Platform that will reduce costs, improve agent productivity & delight customers at http://www.richpanel.com/partners/ajf?utm_source=spotify.//What if the biggest risk to your brand isn't competition or CPMs - it's how you define success? In this episode, Andrew walks through a practical framework for setting reasonable, operator-grade goals using EOS (10-year → 3-year → 1-year → quarterly), then pressure-testing those goals against your real constraints: product pipeline, supply chain, hiring, onboarding, and P&L design. We dig into why “rocket ship” thinking so often creates chaos: over-hiring, over-buying inventory, and chasing vanity targets - and how durable brands actually grow: methodically, with clear success criteria and a bias toward profitability.You'll learn how to translate vision into numbers; why returning-customer mix lowers CAC% over time; how to engineer margin through supplier work (terms, lead times, BOM interrogation); and when to seize moments without over-leveraging. Real operator cases—Born Primitive, Simple Modern, Natural Dog Company, CTC—illustrate why steady compounding beats aggressive targets that break systems. If you want a calmer calendar and a fatter P&L, this is the playbook.//CHAPTER TITLES:00:01:06 - Using EOS As a Framework00:04:10 - What Is Motivating You & Your Goals (For Your Business)00:07:42 - How Can Your Vision Be A Constraint?00:09:01 - Examples of Great Brands 00:16:16 - Andrew defines a Rocketship Business00:19:10 - Good Businesses Build Steady Overtime00:25:31 - The Secret Sauce Brands Are Using To Grow00:28:33 - Maximizing Key Moments00:30:34 - P&L Design00:32:53 - Don't Let The Promise of A.I. Fool You00:34:49 - Goals for AJF Growth//SUBSCRIBE TO MY PODCAST FOR 2X/WEEKLY UPLOADS!//ADMISSIONGet the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: ⁠⁠https://www.youradmission.co/andrew-faris-podcast⁠//FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/andrewjfaris ⁠Email: podcast@ajfgrowth.comWork with Andrew: ⁠https://ajfgrowth.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Why is your ad revenue flat even when your game's traffic is growing? Margins are getting squeezed by hidden fees, and old strategies of yelling at partners no longer move the needle. In this episode, we sit down with veteran ad monetization consultant Kelly Kang to get her modern playbook for building a resilient and profitable ad strategy from the ground up.Kelly Kang has optimized ad strategies for some of the biggest names in mobile gaming, including Big Fish Games, Aristocrat, and Glu Mobile. She provides a masterclass on auditing your current setup, choosing the right tech stack, and understanding the metrics that truly matter for long-term growth.In this episode, you will learn:The #1 reason your revenue margins are shrinking (and it's not what you think).A 4-point framework to audit your ad stack, from mediation to placements.Why you should track Ad Engagement and Impression Depth over ARPDAU and CPM.The most common (and costly) mistakes studios make when launching and operating ads.Actionable "quick wins" that can immediately boost performance.How to structure and scale your ad monetization team based on revenue, not workload.Episode Chapters (Timestamps):(00:00:26) The Biggest Pain Point: Squeezed Margins & Hidden Fees(00:04:21) The Day-One Audit: A 4-Point Framework(00:07:37) Strategy: Header Bidding vs. Waterfall(00:14:25) The Metrics That Actually Matter (Beyond ARPDAU)(00:17:54) Ad Placement and Format Strategy(00:27:35) Launching a New Game: A Step-by-Step Plan(00:38:29) How to Structure and Scale Your Admon Team(00:49:03) Common Mistakes That Kill Revenue and LTV(00:55:49) Quick Wins to Boost Ad Revenue(01:04:08) The Future of Ad Monetization & AIFollow Us:For more expert insights, subscribe to the Gamemakers newsletter: https://www.gamemakers.com/Connect with our Guest:To learn more about Kelly Kang and her work, visit Game Plan Advisor: https://www.gameplanadvisor.com

In this episode of The Podcast Advertising Playbook, David "DK" Krulewich joins host Heather Osgood to talk about the value of programmatic ads, and how AI powered ad tech can help maximize both reach and revenue. David Krulewich is the CEO of Mission Media, a company dedicated to driving influence through independent voices. Leveraging the power of audio, CTV, podcasting, and social media, Mission Media connects brands with consumers in the most impactful ways - reaching audiences at meaningful touchpoints through a marketplace of over 100 independent influencers. By harnessing AI-driven contextual targeting, Mission Media enables advertisers to align their messaging with the right content, ensuring powerful brand storytelling and measurable marketing success. In this episode, you will hear: Key differences in host-read ads and programmatic ads Why creators and advertisers should include programmatic in their campaigns How to leverage your back catalog to increase inventory and monetization potential How to drive impact and influence using the latest in programmatic technology Factors that impact overall yield and CPMs through targeting If you're a creator looking for new ways to monetize, or an advertiser looking to add programmatic ad reads to your strategy, this one is for you.

INTELLIGEMSIntelligems brings A/B testing to business decisions beyond copy and design. Test your pricing, shipping charges, free shipping thresholds, offers, SaaS tools, and more by clicking here: https://bit.ly/42DcmFl. Get 20% off the first 3 months with code FARIS20.FERMATCreate funnels the same way you create ads with FERMAT by visiting ⁠⁠https://fermatcommerce.com/af//Most brands feel the Meta ceiling: spend more, ROAS drops—cut spend, volume collapses. In this episode, we unpack why that happens and how to scale profitably by understanding your natural CAC, the Meta auction mechanics, and the non-linear trade-off between efficiency and volume. You'll learn how CPMs reflect marketplace equilibrium, why “two-to-one ROAS” shows up at scale, and what actually moves results: estimated action rate, post-click profit optimization, and business design that supports volume.We walk through a practical playbook: identify your current natural CAC; use higher-quality, message-market-fit creative to penetrate deeper at the same bid; optimize profit per click (upsells, offers, bundles, pricing tests); explore new audiences/angles; ship new products to unlock fresh demand; and engineer the P&L (opex, supply chain terms, staffing, capital) so you can win more auctions without burning margin. If you run a 7–9 figure brand and care about scaling with profitability, this is the meta-ads episode that pays for itself. What you'll take away:• How Meta's auction actually prices your customer and why CAC “settles.” • The marginal frontier concept and why scale/efficiency is non-linear.• The levers that raise volume without wrecking contribution margin: creative EAR, profit-per-click tests, LTV expansion, and capitalization strategy.//CHAPTER TITLES:00:01:44 - What Is Natural CAC?00:04:40 - High Volume Meta Ads00:05:41 - Your Brands Natural Customer00:08:10 - Breaking Down How Ad Auctions Work00:12:21 - Why Meta CPM's Have Gone Up00:17:35 - The Value of a Specific Search Term00:20:51 - The Importance of a Strong LTV00:25:06 - How To Win At Cost Thresholds?00:35:42 - Lowering Your OpEx00:37:58 - The Best Brands DO THIS//SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL FOR 2X/WEEKLY UPLOADS!//ADMISSIONGet the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: ⁠⁠https://www.youradmission.co/andrew-faris-podcast⁠//FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/andrewjfaris ⁠Email: podcast@ajfgrowth.comWork with Andrew: ⁠https://ajfgrowth.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Episode SummaryDigital advertising promised perfect accountability—laser-sharp targeting, flawless attribution, and measurable results down to the last click. But what if the data has been lying to us all along?Dr. Augustine Fou, former Chief Digital Officer and independent ad fraud researcher, reveals why the "1% fraud rate" you've been hearing for a decade is dangerously wrong. In this eye-opening conversation, he exposes the systemic incentives that allow ad fraud to thrive, costing advertisers billions while enriching middlemen, platforms, and fraudsters.You'll discover how a major hotel chain found their "incredible" ROAS completely evaporated when they turned off campaigns for one week. Why "audience expansion networks" are actually "fraudience networks" filled with bots. And how placement reports from your DSP are systematically fabricated because fraudulent sites lie about their domains in bid requests.Dr. Fou doesn't just diagnose the problem—he provides concrete, actionable solutions. Learn the one campaign setting that eliminates 90% of fraud instantly, why paying higher CPMs actually saves you money, and how to measure what actually matters: Human CPM (HCPM), not just impressions.This isn't about pointing fingers. It's about upgrading your analytics so you can finally see what's really happening with your ad spend—and take back control.Key TakeawaysThe 1% Lie: Legacy verification vendors have reported ~1% invalid traffic for 10 years straight—not because fraud is low, but because that's all they can detectThe Attribution Illusion: View-through conversions and ROAS reports massively over-attribute sales that would have happened anywayEveryone Benefits But You: Ad exchanges, agencies under budget pressure, verification vendors, and even marketers protecting their jobs all profit from the status quoFraudience Networks: Turning off audience expansion on Facebook, Google, TikTok, and other platforms immediately eliminates 90% of fraudThe CPM Trap: Lower CPMs aren't "cost efficiency"—you're just buying 10x more impressions where only 10% reach humans, making your effective Human CPM 10x higherPlacement Report Fiction: Sites lie about their domain in bid requests, so your blocklists don't work and your reports show clean inventory that doesn't existThe Turn-Off Test: Run holdout experiments—turn off campaigns in one state or for one week and measure if sales velocity actually changesTimestamps00:00 - Introduction: The Promise vs. Reality of Digital Advertising02:58 - Dr. Fou's Journey: From MIT Chemistry to Ad Fraud Research05:54 - Why Everyone Dismissed the Warnings (Including Marc)09:12 - There's No "Typical" Fraud Rate: From 1% to 100% Depending on What You Buy11:58 - The Attribution Problem: Why Your ROAS Reports Are Fiction14:56 - The Incentive Structure: Why Everyone Profits From Fraud Except Advertisers17:58 - When Does This Become a Shareholder Problem?26:59 - Red vs. Blue: Why You Must Measure Both Bots AND Humans29:27 - The CPM Misconception: Price vs. Cost Efficiency32:54 - Fraudience Networks: Turn Them Off and Save 90% Immediately36:04 - How Bots Game Retargeting and Audience Segments40:04 - Best Practices: Inclusion Lists, Direct Buying, and Turning Off Audience Networks42:15 - The Placement Report Scam: Why Your Blocklists Don't Work47:00 - The Footfall Fraud: How Ad Tech Gamed In-Store Attribution52:01 - Moving Away From Black Box Algorithms56:04 - Reframing the Conversation: From "Fraud" to "Better Analytics"Guest BioDr. Augustine Fou is a former Chief Digital Officer, independent ad fraud researcher, and creator of FouAnalytics—an analytics platform that measures both bot traffic (red) and human traffic (blue) to give advertisers unprecedented...

Send us a textAre YouTube ads finally better than TV for building a local brand, or is broadcast still king when you need daily reach and real frequency?

Questions Advi answered in this episode: What is Social Plus, and how do its in-app social features work?Why is retention ‘the new acquisition' in 2025?What mistakes do marketers make when they think about retention?How do community features increase CLV across verticals like fitness, travel, and retail?How can first-party data from in-app communities transform marketing and personalization?Who inside a company should ‘own' retention marketing, product, or success?How can loyalty programs be built on organic engagement instead of just promos?What is the ‘spaces model' for understanding community ROI?How should marketers balance personalization with scale across millions of users?What metrics should marketers stop obsessing over, and which deserve more focus?What new revenue opportunities do brand partners unlock inside communities?Timestamps:(0:00) – Intro; Advi's background and Social Plus overview(1:38) – Micro-community examples: surf shops, fitness apps, Nike sneakerheads(7:03) – Why ‘retention is growth' in 2025: CAC vs CLV(9:30) – Marketing silos and the ownership problem in retention(13:40) – Why promos and events are less effective than organic engagement(17:21) – First-party data: insights, sentiment analysis, and privacy advantages(20:00) – Loyalty vs. hypergrowth: why CLV is a long-term play(22:37) – Signals of churn, and how to intervene before users leave(25:41) – Balancing personalization and scale with AI-driven sentiment and clusters(28:20) – Metrics that marketers overvalue (CAC, ad spend) versus those they undervalue (LTV, frequency, order size)(31:00) – Brand partnerships inside communities: CPM rethink and new revenue models(33:32) – Rapid fire: food in Thailand vs Italy, habits, dream jobs, favorite brandsSelected quotes(12:50) – “Promos and gamified events help, but organic engagement helps more. People join a 30-day fitness challenge not for the discount, but because others are posting daily and they want to participate.”(21:22) – “Customer acquisition is measurable and fast, which is why VCs love it. Retention is a long-term play, it's demand gen, brand equity, and profitability over three to five years.”(28:30) – “Marketers need to stop obsessing over CAC. In my world, it's 30% CAC, 70% retention and lifetime value.”(32:23) – “For sponsored posts in-community, we've seen brands charge $15 to $60 CPMs, because the audience is hyper-focused and conversion rates are so much higher.”Mentioned in this episodeSocial Plus (social.plus)Advi on Linkedin

Send us a textJoin us as Mark Goldhart and Trevor Crump explore the critical importance of creative velocity and diversity in digital advertising. They dive into how uploading varied content more frequently can lead to lower CPMs and better overall ad performance. The duo shares insights on leveraging user-generated content, the value of static ads, and why aiming for "lightning in a bottle" isn't a sustainable strategy. They also touch on the Pareto principle in advertising and draw parallels with sports to illustrate the need for consistent, predictable outcomes in marketing.Follow  ⁨@unstoppablemarketerpodcast⁩ on instagram and youtube for daily marketing insights and direct feedback.

In Episode 271, we dive into one of the most critical parts of the Podcast Playbook: monetization. Podcasting is one of the most powerful tools for business development, but it comes with real costs — hardware, software, editing, your time, and even promotion. That's why monetization is not optional if you want your show to survive and thrive long term. In this episode, I walk you through why monetization matters, how to set yourself up for success early, and the five main revenue streams available to you as a podcaster: sponsorships, dynamic ad insertion, affiliate marketing, products and services, and paid communities.We also explore what sponsors are truly looking for, how to create compelling sponsorship packages, and why small niche shows can often command higher CPMs than large, general audiences. I share the pitfalls to avoid — from undervaluing your show to taking misaligned sponsors — and the long-term view you'll need to make monetization sustainable. Whether you're just starting or already running your podcast, this episode gives you the proven strategies to not only cover your costs but also to build real revenue that can support your growth for years to come.Key Takeaways: 1. Monetization is not optional — it's the only way to sustain a podcast long term.2. Hardware, software, hosting, editing, and promotion all carry costs that add up quickly.3. Planning for monetization early, including choosing a host with dynamic ad insertion, sets you up for success.4. Podcasts can generate revenue through sponsorships, dynamic ads, affiliate marketing, products and services, and paid communities.5. Sponsors care more about audience fit, consistency, and engagement than just download numbers.6. CPM (cost per thousand downloads) is a useful benchmark, but niche shows can command far higher rates.7. Even small podcasts with hundreds of downloads can monetize effectively if their audience is valuable to the right sponsors.8. Building custom sponsorship packages that include social posts, community mentions, and creative integrations adds major value.9. Avoid pitfalls like undervaluing your show, relying on one income stream, or taking sponsors that don't align with your audience.10. Monetization is a long game — start small, stay consistent, and treat every deal as planting seeds for future sustainability.✨ Join The Catalyst ClubIf you're ready to take the next step in your journey, don't go it alone. Inside The Catalyst Club, you'll find a private community of entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and podcasters who are walking the same path as you. It's a place built on support, collaboration, and growth — where you can share your wins, tackle challenges, and get the accountability you need to keep moving forward.The Catalyst Club was built for leaders like you — because if you know, you're known.

(Originally released September 2023) #349: Shelby Church has been a YouTube content creator for over 10 years, covering everything lifestyle, tech and business related. She has amassed an audience of 1.7 million subscribers and over 100 million total video views. She has been featured in multiple articles from Business Insider covering YouTube analytics and CPMs. She also has a series on her Airbnb in Palm Springs - showing everything from renovations, to the numbers behind the business.Topics discussed:Importance of high-yield savings accountLife as a content creator and YouTuberReality of buying and renovating a home to rent outBest business banks for young entrepreneurs and freelancersIdeal percentage of your income to save in order to have substantial savingsPerks of airport lounges if you travel frequentlyENJOY 10% OFF THE WHAT FULFILLS YOU? CARD GAME AT www.whatfulfillsyou.com - code "WHATFULFILLSYOU10"Follow Shelby Church on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shelbychurchFollow the What Fulfills You? Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatfulfillsyouFollow Emily Elizabeth's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilyeduongSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/what-fulfills-you-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Social ad spend is growing but over half of it still goes to waste. In this first episode of The Media Lift Effect, a special SocialMinds × Brave Talk collaboration, host Eve Young is joined by Gareth Harrison (SocialChain) and Mark Byrne (Brave Bison) to unpack why performance is falling short — and what needs to change.  They explore the new realities of rising CPMs, fractured attention, and misleading last-click attribution. And introduce a smarter model built for how people move through social: aligning creative, media, and measurement to reduce waste and lift performance.  From creator content to dwell time, organic signals to data-driven attribution — this is your reset on what effective social performance really looks like. 

David Webb's Yarnhub pulls 400 million annual views for cinematic WW2 stories—no ad spend required. On Inside Startup Investing he details how that captive audience now funds a historically accurate video-game, why the company's CPMs beat integration ads, and the path to 3–5 billion monthly views across multiple channels. If MrBeast can sell burgers, Yarnhub can sell history. Listen in and judge whether this next-gen studio merits a spot in your alt-portfolio.Accidental media empire. Webb left Intel, acquired “War History Online,” and pivoted from publishing to high-quality animated shorts on YouTube.Huge organic reach. Yarnhub generates ~35 M YouTube views and ~150 K new subs per month—with minimal paid advertising.Quality over clickbait. Films cost ~$40 K each, use game-engine animation, and weave “goose-bump” human stories rather than dry battle timelines.Revenue today. ~US $1 M annual from YouTube ads; expected to scale to several million as channels expand.The bigger play. Audience demand led Yarnhub to develop a WW2-themed game—with 40 K Steam wish-lists after just a few months.

Everyone's chasing influencers and TikTok—but there's one old-school channel quietly crushing it for CPG brands: radio. In this episode, Mark and Justin pull back the curtain on how they've used radio to drive explosive in-store sales, cut through media clutter, and dominate overlooked markets with laughably low CPMs. They're not just talking theory—they break down real campaigns that worked (and why), including how to target truckers with satellite radio, trigger impulse grocery buys on drive-time, and hijack weather reports to sell skin cream. Why most marketers are dead wrong about radio's reach How to geo-target and time-target ads without digital The art of making radio creative that actually converts A "vomit or no vomit" campaign that beat Pepto at their own game Want a media edge your competitors aren't even thinking about? Listen now.

Struggling to break past six figures with your Meta (Facebook) ads? In this episode of The Growth Marketing Stories podcast, Aazar sits down with Ovidia, founder of the eight-figure brand Perfect Jean, to reveal actionable strategies for scaling paid media, creative operations, and unlocking consistent ad winners.

Send us a textIn this episode of The Sports Marketing Machine Podcast, host Jeremy Neisser shares why consistent video content is no longer a "nice-to-have" — it's the cornerstone of a smarter paid media strategy. Whether you're trying to warm up cold audiences, lower your ad costs, or re-engage past ticket buyers, video is the most powerful (and underused) tool in your marketing playbook.Jeremy explains how short-form videos help you build trust, increase engagement, and improve targeting — even on a tight budget. He also shares real-world examples and actionable tips for sports teams to use video content to drive more clicks, conversions, and repeat attendance.

So, Libsyn just flipped the script on podcast monetization. No more minimum download requirements. That's right — whether your show gets 5 downloads or 5,000, you can now run programmatic ads and make some money just for publishing your podcast. But here's the real question: just because you can… should you? In this episode of Podtastic Audio, we dig into what this change really means for indie podcasters. Is this the golden ticket to finally “getting paid,” or does it risk turning your passion project into a string of ads your listeners skip in 30 seconds flat? We're talking:

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupIn this episode of the DTC Podcast, Eric Dyck hosts Taylor Cain and Jacob from Pilothouse Meta Brain Trust to unpack how high-volume DTC brands test creative at scale on Meta. Learn their hybrid approach using ABO for insight discovery and Advantage Plus/CBO for scaling winners—while keeping testing spend lean at 5–10% of total budget.Key Moments & Takeaways:30+ ads/week testing: how they structure ABO for high-velocity creative discoveryBudget allocation: keep risk predictable by dedicating a small portion to testsMeta signals: what defines ‘net-new creative' and how visuals/text/video intros affect deliveryAI vs. human oversight: balancing Meta's algorithm with strategic media buyingHealth & wellness challenges: dealing with regressions in data permissionsChannel diversification: why brands pivot to AppLovin amid Meta data limitationsSeasonality playbook: capitalizing on lower CPMs pre-summer and prepping for prime Q4Did you know that 98% of your website visitors are anonymous? Instant powers next-level retention by identifying who they are and converting them into loyal shoppers. Sign up for a quick demo today to get 50% off and unlock a guaranteed 4x+ ROI: instant.one/dtcTimestamps00:00 – Why July is the best time to stock the pond for Q402:05 – Creative testing structures: ABO vs. ASC vs. CBO06:50 – Meta's evolving definition of “net new creative”11:55 – How Meta's AI systems (Andromeda, GEM, Lattice) influence delivery17:35 – Health and wellness brands and Meta's tracking limitations22:00 – AppLovin's rise as an alternative channel for supplement brands23:45 – Prime Day effects on Meta ad performance and purchase intentHashtags#MetaAds#FacebookAds#CreativeTesting#EcommerceMarketing#DTCBrands#PerformanceMarketing#PaidSocial#DigitalAdvertising#PilotHouse#AllKillerNoFiller Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouseFollow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Social commerce is booming. Learn how brands use TikTok Shop, influencer campaigns, and spark ads to drive engagement and how it boosts your Amazon sales.   Can TikTok Shop really be the ultimate game-changer for brands aiming to make millions together with Amazon? Join us as we welcome Sohun Sanka, who brings firsthand experience from TikTok Shop's inception in the US, to uncover the secrets behind this booming social commerce platform. From algorithms to government scrutiny, we dissect what makes TikTok a revolutionary tool for brand success and how it stands apart from traditional platforms like Amazon and Shopify.   Discover how TikTok Shop's seamless in-app purchasing is setting new standards in e-commerce, offering brands lower CPMs and remarkable attribution capabilities. We take you through the maze of TikTok's advertising landscape, highlighting innovative ad types like Spark ads and live shopping ads that are transforming consumer engagement. Learn the strategic differences between organic content and paid ads, and why TikTok's approach to integrating shopping links directly into videos can potentially skyrocket your brand's conversions and awareness.   Engaging influencers effectively on TikTok is more than just a trend; it's a necessity. We explore the evolving landscape of influencer marketing with a focus on performance-based agreements and gamification. Hear about the transition from flat fee models to dynamic commission structures, and how brands are fostering communities of brand ambassadors to drive unmatched success. Dive into the intricacies of TikTok's strict content guidelines and discover how clear content blueprints can elevate your affiliate program. With Sohun's insights, unlock the potential to optimize your brand's impact on TikTok Shop like never before.   In episode 453 of the AM/PM Podcast, Kevin and Sohun discuss: 00:00 - TikTok Shop Strategy and Success 02:32 - Early Days of TikTok Shop 10:46 - The Power of Social Commerce 13:38 - TikTok Shop Advertising Strategy Insights 18:54 - Boosting Amazon Sales Through TikTok 19:32 - Effective Influencer Acquisition Strategies 24:45 - Creator Acquisition Lever Through Contests 27:22 - Influencer Retainer Strategies & Success 29:06 - Influencer Ambassador Program Success Strategies 34:28 - Strategic Approach to TikTok Marketing 36:41 - TikTok Shop Rules and Strategies 40:10 - Impact of Brand Affiliate Programs

With websites covering topics like entertainment (ScreenRant), gaming (Polygon) and automotive (CarBuzz), Valnet caters to users across a wide array of interests.But according to Ji Heon Kim, Valnet's head of monetization, Valnet realized it could create more value for its users by encouraging them to subscribe or authenticate themselves.Maybe a “mass scale” of users wouldn't sign up for their websites, but perhaps 10% would. And, as Kim puts it, that “10% would still be valuable, and we can do a lot with that 10%.”“We created more value to [those] users, more exclusive content and high-quality content,” Kim says. “All of that became an initiative on the content side for us to deliver a premium model and give users an incentive to sign up.”Kim further talked with The Current Podcast about balancing advertiser value, user experience and performance, which he says are “always affecting each other.” Episode TranscriptPlease note, this transcript  may contain minor inconsistencies compared to the episode audio.Damian Fowler (00:00):I'm Damian Fowler, and welcome to The Current Podcast. Today we're talking to one of the biggest digital publishers. You might not know by name, but you've definitely read their stuff. I'm talking about Net. The company behind Screen Rant, the Gamer, Kaleida make use of, and a bunch of other sites that rack up hundreds of millions of sessions every month. Joining me today is Ji Kim Valnet's, head of monetization. Ji'S been leading the charge on everything from supply path optimization to first party data to figuring out how to drive real revenue without compromising the reader experience. We'll get into some of the big shifts they've made in their tech stack and how they're bringing newly acquired brands like Polygon into their ecosystem and what other publishers can learn from their approach.Ji Kim (00:52):At Valnet, I'd like to think of us as a publishing powerhouse. We started very small. Our motto is humble and hungry. We like to remind ourselves that it's always good to keep a humble mindset. I've been at NET for 10 years and we've grown tremendously. We've went through a lot ups and downs, but even as we grow, we like to think that we're small and agile and the publications we range from automotive, gaming, technology, entertainment, but entertainment has always been our flagship, but we've been kind of branching outside of that and trying to expand more and more. And then we have some lifestyle brands as well as sports.Damian Fowler (01:35):Let's talk about a moment that changed the game for Net. Can you walk us through your, I guess we're going to talk about supply path optimization at first anyway, which is a hot topic around these parts and what work you did around supply path optimization, like cutting resellers and boosting direct inventory. Could you talk us through that a little?Ji Kim (01:57):It's an ongoing process. It's certainly, I think most people agree that SPO is not an easy thing to achieve. You can commit to it one shot, but that's much harder to do considering that there will be a revenue impact. So for us, we tried both ways. We took a few sites and we took the direct approach and we saw a pretty decent stability, and then some other sites did not, and then we have to kind of revert back to it. SPO, it was always a topic that was talked about but not well enforced. And tradedesk took a big initiative to push publishers towards it. And then we started working closely with Jounce Media as well, with Chris Kane started kind of talking through some of the ideas, how should we go about it? How do we retain the value and still achieve removing the resale alliance and keep our inventory as clean as possible?(02:51):But initially our outlook of SPO was about making our inventory as clean and transparent as possible. Net considers ourselves as a premium publisher and we want to make sure that the advertisers see that as well. So we were heading in that direction. But ultimately, I think the biggest challenge with SPO was it's impossible to do an AB test because you have one A TXT file and you can't test one setup with the resell alliance, one setup without. So that's been pretty challenging to understand where's the value going, where is it coming from? And even with the Resell Alliance, when you talk to the SSPs with Resell Alliance, they'll go, oh, these are PP deals. These are not just rebroadcasting and all this stuff. So trying to understand the granularity and all that details of what each resale align means was very difficult. But ultimately we know we have to go in that direction, but we know it's not going to happen overnight, so we're kind of just taking a step at a time.Damian Fowler (03:51):That's great. What would you say was the kind of catalyst or moment that sparked that shift?Ji Kim (03:57):We always talked about advertiser value. It is important to yield as much value as possible and get the performance that we need. We always think that advertiser value is important, and when we think about that, it's like you go through stages. You go, okay, viewability needs to be important. Let's get viewability up to above standard, above average, make sure our CTR is good, but it's high quality clicks. It's not just users just clicking on stuff. Then you go through the lines and eventually you get to SPOs. Make sure that advertisers know what inventory they're getting access to, what they're buying, and make sure that they're getting insights. The transparency is there. Then we've increased the value of our inventory.Damian Fowler (04:46):Yeah, I mean that's the key, right, obviously. And speaking of that, having made these changes, are you in a position to be able to see the kind of impact that they've had from a revenueJi Kim (04:58):Perspective? Honestly, I don't think I can everything, especially with these kinds of stuff, what I've learned is it doesn't change overnight. Let's say we remove all the reseller lines yesterday. Today, likely the performance is going to drop initially and maybe things recover over time, but there's so many moving parts that it's hard to associate the value towards SPO, and that's a lot of things that we do in this industry. But I think that's when we like to look at it as, you know what? Ultimately we are improving the quality of our inventory, so we will get rewarded at some point. And that's how you move forward. But with SPO, I think the other side is that it's not just about removing reseller lines. You also have to market yourself and tell the advertisers that, Hey, we have gone in this direction. We have removed the reseller lines. All of our inventory is direct. It's clean. And that part is also hard to do. We haven't spent a lot of time or resources into marketing ourselves, and that's why we talked about, people may not know net, but they know our brands. It's the same thing. It's like we are now making a big push to let people know who Val net is, and that's going to go in hand in hand with this stuff.Damian Fowler (06:21):In terms of that messaging around the surgery as it were you're doing on the supply path, does that land well with advertisers?Ji Kim (06:32):I think it's always positively looked at when you tell them, it's like everybody, it is never negative, but I don't know if actually if it's meaningful for them because at scale, they're buying at scale. So yeah, we're a big publisher, but they're also buying at multiple publishers. Maybe only small portion of their budgets come to us. So it's positive, but I don't know if it's all that meaningful to them. At least that's what I've felt.Damian Fowler (07:04):So in addition to the SPO, what other tweaks or changes are you as head of monetization looking at to basically bring in those ad dollars and keep readers satisfied, I suppose?Ji Kim (07:17):Yeah, so there's three things. So we looked at the advertiser value, but then there's the user experience and then the performance side. So always those three things, there's constantly affecting each other. Ad density is probably one of the biggest part of advertiser value and performance and user experience. So we are constantly trying to reduce our density, and we look at this metric impressions per session and request per session. So we look at that and injections our injections based on content length, a paragraph breaks and all that stuff. So we'll try to work with the content team to create optimal breaks. I'll have a little sit down session with the content team. The leads say, okay, this is how the admin injection works, and how you break out your content really does impact, because we won't break a paragraph in half to inject an ad. So there needs to be natural breaks for the ads to inject. So if you have massive paragraphs, we're going to have less ad injections, which is fine if the content works like that, but they also need to think about how all this stuff works.Damian Fowler (08:26):That's really interesting. I mean, I think that sweet spot between not being the Vegas strip, but also ads have to populate at the right time to have value.Ji Kim (08:35):For net, we've focused mostly on open market programmatic spend. We have a small direct initiative. This is something that we've been trying to grow, but when you don't have huge direct sales initiative and direct spend coming in, you kind of need the density because the CPMs that you get from open market is much lower. So we want to try to move away from that as much as possible. I don't think found that will ever be a publisher where we drive like 50% of the revenue from direct sales, but we want to grow it to maybe 15, 20%. And once we do that, we can yield higher CPMs, which allows us to reduce the density, which would be better for advertiser value, better for user experience, and we'll still get the performance that we need to kind of go forward.Damian Fowler (09:24):So it's a balance.Ji Kim (09:25):Yeah. Yeah. I think if we can drive higher CPMs, we would love to reduce density, but it's always the constant battle between the two of, okay, well we reduced density. Oh, we went too far. Okay, we got to bring it back a little bit.Damian Fowler (09:38):How difficult is it to kind of innovate in ad tech? This is a broader question, I guess given how fast things are changing, especially on the programmatic front,Ji Kim (09:47):It's been very, very difficult. Rapidly changing environment is definitely one of them, and you have to adapt quickly. For example, the video definition of having instream outstream, and then now there's a third definition of accompanying that stuff. When it happened, the enforcement happened quickly, so we had to adapt quickly, and that's difficult. But innovating is, I think, much more difficult than just adapting to the new policies and new rules. So many different ways to innovate pre, for example, you have the open source code, you build that, but there's so many customizations that you can do and even a single customization, you interpret how you should approach that topic and how you should build your tech. So you kind of have to talk to your developers and walk through. And our biggest challenge I would say was bridging the gap between developers and ad ops. I was like, because I am an ad ops guy, I understand programmatic landscape very well, but our developers do not. And I'm not a developer, I'm not a technical guy. Obviously through 10 years I've learned a lot of stuff, but still, if I needed to build something, I'm not going to be able to tell them exactly how to build it. So you need somebody in the middle that understands both sides,(11:03):And that was the most difficult part. And eventually we did find resources that they were able to bridge that gap and were able to build stuff. But ultimately, there's just so many different ways to build your product and you want to make sure that product that you build or tech stack that you build is going to keep that balance that you need between the user experience, the performance, and the density, everything that pertains to page speed as well. If you build it to be too slow, everything gets affected as well, and that's harder to tell. So yeah.Damian Fowler (11:37):So how have some of these technical changes influenced your broad and monetization philosophy?Ji Kim (11:43):Yeah, so I guess one of the things, if we talk about authentication, we talk about cookie deprecation and why authentication became so important to majority of the publishers. And I remember our thought process around authentication was pretty pessimistic, I would say. But eventually we said know what? We can create content or value for the users that's going to want them to sign up and want them to get authenticated. And we said we got to start somewhere. Ultimately, maybe we've become a little bit more realistic about what critical mass of a value would be if we're at, if we're expecting 50% of users will log in, that's not going to happen, but 10% is still very meaningful. So it was about our philosophy was changing, about our expectations changing and still understanding that 10% could be very valuable and we can do a lot with that 10%. So we created more value to the users are more exclusive content, high quality content, high quality videos. All of that stuff became an initiative on the content side for us to deliver the premium model and to give users the incentive to authenticate a sign up on.Damian Fowler (13:03):That's really interesting. I think one of the things that also I'm hearing is that you kind of have different audiences, but you're getting to understand your audiences. I mean, this strategy gives you more insight into who's coming.Ji Kim (13:15):Yeah. We also created what we call threads. They can talk about the article, talk about topics that we're discussing, and that really improved our engagement.Damian Fowler (13:30):As you look to the future, how do you think about, as it were, locking in some of these changes and this value that you see from this audience?Ji Kim (13:40):So I want to go back a little bit about innovating and how difficult it is. So I went through the stages of, okay, what am I focusing on to optimize to yield more value? And initially it was demand. Okay, we want to work with as many high quality as P as possible, but then you do work with all of them. There are going to be going to be one or two that come here and there, but generally speaking, they're not going to create incremental value. They'll just take a piece of pie that was taken by somebody else, not meaningful value. Then you work on ad tech innovation, all that stuff, and that we'll continuously work on that, but that also has lots of limitations, and you eventually reach a plateau point of say, you're not going to find a lot low hanging fruits. So now we come to premium inventory, which we need to learn our users, we need to learn who they are so we can offer these users to our advertisers to grow our PMP programmatic direct, as well as your conventional IO based direct deals that's going to yield as higher CPMs.Damian Fowler (14:53):Yeah, I mean, talk of premium inventories is characteristic of the moment we are in when it comes to programmatic sales for publishers.Ji Kim (15:02):Yeah.Damian Fowler (15:04):Let's draw back and look at the big picture and some of the kind of industry context. I guess think I'm correct in saying Valnet reach has more than 400 million sessions a month across its network. That's correct. And how do you think about that, that kind of scale when every property has its own audience profile and publishing rhythm?Ji Kim (15:30):Yeah, it's sometimes a bit overwhelming how much reach our sites have, but I always try to look at it as our advantage, and this is the opportunity that hasn't been tapped into, is that okay, we're 95% of our inventory is sold in the open market, and we have so much data that we could collect and leverage in order to drive higher value. And it's just looking at it, it's overwhelming, but you start to see the real value that hasn't been tapped into, and that's exciting, but it's also very, very difficult to manage all that information, manage that data, and use it properly. So yeah, I mean it excites me, but also I know how challenging it can be to create value through that. So we're taking one step at a time, even first party data collection. I wouldn't say we're crazy sophisticated, but we're keeping it a level that we know how to manage and understanding it well first and then starting to kind of grow a step-by-step.Damian Fowler (16:45):Yeah, I mean, I suppose the whole back and forth about third party cookies may have provided a spark. I know it lit a fire under the industry. Speaking of first party data, so that is a focus for you?Ji Kim (16:56):Yes, yes. But I believe when it was really a huge focus for the industry was when Google had first announced that they're going to deprecate third party cookies, and we had the initial moment of, oh, you know what? We also need to look into this, but we didn't want to panic. Our outlook was, I'm sure everybody went through the initial panic. We did too, but we didn't want to stay in that moment. And we said, okay, what's realistically going to happen for publishers like us? How much first party data can we collect and really sell because we don't have a huge direct sales initiative? And at that point we had none. And you can't grow direct sales overnight. It's a highly competitive environment, and you're entering that new market. You have to build relationships, you have to have crazy amount of salespeople that are constantly going out there representing balance inventory.(17:55):And we weren't set up for that, and we weren't willing to just fully invest everything into growing that at the time. So we said, well, maybe first party data isn't as important. Collecting first part data isn't as important as just understanding how to go about direct sales. So that's what we worked on. We've hired salespeople, we enter that space. I was very naive about how direct sales worked, and now we have a better understanding. We have good salespeople that understand our values as well. We don't want to just go out and sell anything and everything. We want to understand the creative types that we're also selling isn't going to impact user experience horribly and negatively. The high impact guys, the site scans when they're done, right, it's great user experience, but it could also go the other way. So we wanted to build a baseline first, and that's what we did the last few years. And now we can go after the first party data in a more sustainable way for us.Damian Fowler (18:56):Let's talk about your acquisition of Polygon from Vox Media. Speaking of inventory that expands the real estate, how does that property fit into what you're doing?Ji Kim (19:07):So Polygon, obviously, we go through a lot of due diligences. We look at different opportunities, and Polygon was an easy one to go through because we knew Polygon has great content, it has a great foundation of creating high quality content. But the difference was that Fox has a lot of direct sales. I can't remember the exact number, but it could have been 75%, 80% of their revenue was generated, direct sold inventory, and then 20% was open market. And for us, it would've been the other way around, flipped around even less. Maybe 95% open market, 5% directive. Initially when we acquired it would've been a hundred percent open market, but that's also why it excite us because it's a premium inventory that doesn't get seen in the open market. Open market buyers don't see the bid requests coming from that website as much. So we're super happy, but we knew this was a high quality inventory, high quality website, and we knew that there was a very small chance that it was going to go poorly.Damian Fowler (20:20):Interesting. When you buy a property like that, you're actually buying an audience to a certain extent.Ji Kim (20:25):Yeah, absolutely.Damian Fowler (20:27):Do you think about audiences as discreet to the publications or do you see crossover?Ji Kim (20:34):Crossover? Yeah, lots of crossover.Damian Fowler (20:37):Yeah. Alright. So I guess the big question here is for other publishers looking to upgrade this strategy that we're talking about, especially in this very complex environment, which is something you clearly understand very deeply, what's one piece of advice that you might offer?Ji Kim (20:54):I think you have to think about realistically what you should go after, what opportunities you should go after. So many things that come up right now, I think the big thing is curated media. And on our end, a lot of the SSPs and DSPs are doing the work for us. They going out and curating our inventory for us, and that's fine. But if you were to go after that and trying to grow it, but you don't really have the resources, it's easy to just kind of see everybody, what everyone else is doing, like, oh, I want a piece of that too, but it's not going to yield the value. Same value if you don't have the right resources in place if you're not focused on that opportunity. So my advice would be to understand which opportunities realistically are you able to get and have the right resources who are going to be passionate about that. Take accountability. That's huge, the accountability part. And that's not something you can just kind of force people. You have to believe that this person that's taking on this project can be really passionate and sink their teeth into it. If you got that, then go after those things. But it's too hard to go after every single opportunity there is. Even if seemingly it seems like a low hanging fruit. Nothing is really that simple in this industry.Damian Fowler (22:15):That's for sure. So finally, we're going to wrap this up with some what we call hot seat questions. So what's one thing you're obsessed with figuring out right now?Ji Kim (22:27):How to yield more value? No, no, no. I'll give a better answer than that right now. For me, it's how to grow direct sales sustainably and scale it in a way that we don't get too bloated. Because through acquisitions, one of the most valuable things that I get is insight. I get to see under the hood of a lot of publishers, small to medium to large, how they operate, what is their strategy and direct sales. I've learned some of the big publishers do it extremely well. It's a well-oiled machine, it's not bloated. They generate a ton of revenue, but some have a huge cost, and that's what we were afraid of. And right now it's very hard to do. So you need the right sales team, you need the right operational guys, you need account representation, you need reporting guide and all this stuff. And right now I am trying to find a way to scale it, but without having massive costs, just kind of take over and then expect this to yield value in the next year or two. I want that line to kind of grow together. And that's not an easy thing to do, obviously. And I'm looking for the right resources. I'm looking to build relationships with agencies with limited guys, just hustle through it and offer them our inventory, charm them, whatever it may take. But yeah, that's what I'm currently obsessed.Damian Fowler (24:01):Okay. What's still missing in the ad tech stack that you wish someone would build?Ji Kim (24:07):I don't know if this would fall under their ad tech stack, but I think we could really benefit from a bit more standardization around, it could be reporting and creatives. Maybe I'm speaking out of line because I'm on the inventory side, so I don't know everything that goes on the buy side and the creative side. But what I see is that there's so many different creatives that just either break the page, the creative's broken, it's too heavy, it slows down the page, and it's hard to target those and remove those. It can come through so many different channels. So if there is a bit more standardization around what kind of creatives are acceptable, I'm sure there is some or a standard already, but it needs to be honed in a bit more maybe.Damian Fowler (25:00):What's one thing advertisers misunderstand about monetizing Publish it inventory today?Ji Kim (25:08):So I thought about this and something that it's more of my frustration around advertisers perspective. I understand it, but a bit more frustration because it's hard to create context around it, which is brand safety. I understand the brand side. I advertise side on why they wouldn't want to associate their brand with certain content, but brand safety is police by keyword list and it's very restrictive. And some of the,Damian Fowler (25:37):It's one toolJi Kim (25:38):And it's like, okay, and we have gaming sites that will, a lot of gaming, natural will talk about shooting, but some of the game developers won't want to associate with those articles. And it's like, hang on, hang on. Now you bet you guys also have games that are first person shooter or whatnot. You don't want to associate with those type of articles. There's a bit of a mismatch, and I think it's just hard to manage that. So they go with a broader approach and I get it, but I think it's just there needs to be more about understanding the context of certain articles. And it's like the word shooting can be anything, everything. Right?Damian Fowler (26:22):Yeah, I like that. I've been hearing more about a shift from brand safety to brand suitability, which brings in the concept of context. What's something unexpected you've learned from reader data or behavior recently?Ji Kim (26:39):So I wouldn't say it's recent, but it's something that's surprises me how the smallest change that I, from my perspective is like, is that really going to do anything? But at our scale, the numbers changed so drastically. Recently we were playing around with the video size because our outstream unit will float once the user are scrolling and the size of that unit. Obviously we want to give advertiser value, so we want to make it as big as possible. But then user experience wise, it could be very bothersome because as they're trying to read, there's a video playing. So we want to keep mindful of that. And we're constantly testing the size of that unit and we decreased by 10% and 10%. While it's significant, if you look at the actual size of the unit to the naked eye, you really wouldn't be able to tell what the difference is. But the CTR of that video unit changed drastically. It was cut in half, actually. And that's the thing is like, okay, users are really sensitive to these things. And to me it's not, maybe I'm looking at it too often, but that's always, that boggles my mind and it always catches me by surprise when I see the numbers is like, wow, I did not expect that. I did not expect users to behave this way.Damian Fowler (28:00):That's amazing. The details really matter.Ji Kim (28:02):Yeah, Big time. Damian Fowler (28:03):And that's it for this edition of The Current Podcast. We'll be back next week. The Current Podcast is produced by Molten Hart. A theme is by Love and Caliber, and our associate producer is Sydney Cairns. And remember,Ji Kim (28:21):I like to think of us as a publishing powerhouse. We started very small. Our motto is humble and hungry. We like to remind ourselves that it's always good to keep a humble mindset.Damian Fowler (28:34):I'm Damian, and we'll see you next time.

Hey sisters! This week you get a bonus episode — and trust me, it's a good one. On Monday, we talked all about what a doula is (and why that matters even before you get pregnant). Today, we're diving into the next big question: What is a midwife? And how does a midwife compare to an OB? If you're like me, maybe you didn't even know midwives existed outside of “old-fashioned” stories — until God opened my eyes. After experiencing OB care through my miscarriages and even into my third trimester with my rainbow baby, I finally learned there was another option. Episode Highlights: What a midwife actually is The difference between OBs and midwives Why your care model really matters — even before you're pregnant How midwives support things naturally, while OBs are trained in disease and intervention The types of midwives: CNMs vs CPMs (and what each one is trained in) What my own experience switching from an OB to a home birth midwife was like — and why it was so different You'll hear about Midwife RX, a telehealth option I recommend for those needing progesterone prescriptions or early care. We'll also talk about how midwives can serve you pre-conception, not just during pregnancy. And if you take away just one thing today, let it be this: You have options. And those options are worth exploring with prayer and intention.

Dots Oyebolu chats with Larry Kim, Founder and CEO of Customers.ai.Larry shares his groundbreaking approach to go-to-market strategies in the B2C space, challenging the dominance of ad-heavy models and introducing a scalable, intent-driven framework for outbound email marketing. From the evolution of PPC to hyper-personalized campaigns powered by AI, this conversation explores how marketers can rethink engagement, improve deliverability and expand their reach without sacrificing relevance or compliance.Key Takeaways:(02:11) Customers.ai identifies website visitors using AI for outbound marketing.(03:53) The future of marketing is hyper-personalized and AI-driven, with individualized video sales letters and content.(07:39) B2C companies are now facing ROI challenges in digital ads due to skyrocketing CPMs.(09:02) Intent-driven email marketing can provide higher quality leads for B2C businesses at a fraction of ad costs.(16:17) “Intent-driven outbounding” is a new category blending the best of inbound and outbound strategies.(18:41) Three strategic pillars are dynamic list generation, deliverability tools and email list hygiene.(33:18) AI-powered creative customization tailors messages to user behavior, identity and journey.(40:17) Customers.ai restores first-party data pipelines, overcoming modern browser and privacy restrictions.(46:11) CAN-SPAM monitors compliance in the US but strategic discomfort boosts innovation.Resources Mentioned:Larry Kimhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/larrykim/Customers.ai | LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/customersai/Customers.ai | Websitehttps://customers.aiInsightful Links:https://customers.ai/bloghttps://userlist.com/blog/b2c-saas-email-marketing/https://www.business2community.com/brandviews/marketo/leverage-social-intent-data-email-marketing-01818638https://martech.org/4-qualities-of-an-intent-driven-marketing-automation-email-program/Thanks for listening to the “Marketing Leadership” podcast, brought to you by Listen Network. If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review to help get the word out about the show. And be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation.We appreciate the enthusiasm and support from our community. Currently, we are not accepting new guest interview requests as we focus on our existing lineup. We will announce when we reopen for new submissions. In the meantime, feel free to explore our past episodes and stay tuned for updates on future opportunities.#PodcastMarketing #PerformanceMarketing #BrandMarketing #MarketingStrategy #MarketingIntelligence #GTM #B2BMarketing #D2CMarketing #PodcastAds

Michelle chats again with sōsh team member Maggie Golden about the constantly evolving marketing world. They explore current patterns in marketing, rising ad costs, and how the way we use hashtags is changing. A.I. zaps into the conversation, too.Tune in for their takes on the death of keyword stuffing, the rise of schema SEO markup, and why memes might just be your brand's secret weapon. Grab your earbuds and get ready for a fun ride through what's working (and what's failing) in today's marketing world. Spoiler: it's all about being real and a little weird.Social Soup is meant to be shared! Subscribe and tell your friends about the show.Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn: ⁠linkedin.com/in/michelledattilio⁠ Connect with Maggie on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/maggiegoldenmke Learn more about sōsh! Visit our website and reach out at: ⁠getsosh.com ⁠  Grab more Social Soup again next time!

Justin Ruiss is the SVP of the Media Sector at BWG Global, a knowledge-sharing network hosting in-person and virtual industry events. In his role, he hosts Q&A forums with executives from various sectors, including social media, advertising, connected TV, streaming, and gaming. Before joining BWG Global, Justin was the Investor Relations Activations Developer at Cision and an Equity Analyst at The Benchmark Company. In this episode… Retail media, CTV advertising, and AI-powered search are evolving faster than many brands can adapt. Marketers are grappling with fragmented content strategies, fluctuating CPMs, and uncertainty around how to allocate budgets effectively across platforms. With performance expectations rising and consumer behaviors shifting, how can brands stay competitive without overspending? According to media and eCommerce analyst Justin Ruiss, now is an ideal time to invest in CTV due to oversupply, lower CPMs, and advanced targeting capabilities. He recommends increasing production budgets to create modular, high-quality content that can be repurposed across channels like TikTok, Amazon, and streaming platforms. Brands can also adopt centralized content planning and leverage tools like Amazon Marketing Cloud to drive enhanced targeting and performance while planning for economic volatility and regulatory changes. In this episode of TheDigital Deep Dive, Aaron Conant interviews Justin Ruiss, SVP of the Media Sector at BWG Global, about the future of digital media buying and AI in eCommerce. Justin explores CTV trends, the rise of agentic AI, and how brand guidelines shape content in gaming environments.

Podcast Summary: Cracking the Meta Code — Scaling Ads with Strategy, Not Just SpendIn this episode, Sacha Awwa sits down with Manel Gomez, a Meta ad specialist managing $300K–$500K/month in spend for e-commerce brands across the U.S. and Europe. With over $25M in profitable ad spend under his belt and regular appearances at Meta HQ, Manel breaks down the technical evolution of Facebook Ads and how founders can navigate the increasingly competitive paid social landscape.From bidding strategies to AI tools and platform trends, Manel offers a masterclass in modern media buying. Whether you're spending $30 or $30,000/day, this episode is a must-listen for anyone trying to make paid ads work in 2025.Key Topics Discussed:1. The Evolution of Meta AdvertisingHow ad strategy shifted from 2016's low-hanging fruit to today's competitive battlefieldThe impact of COVID in three waves: low CPMs, the “golden era,” and post-boom attritionWhy today's ad success requires deeper thinking, not just platform familiarity2. Budget, ROAS & Reality ChecksThe importance of setting a daily budget based on your average order value (AOV)Why under-spending leads to poor machine learning performanceHow to manage client expectations on ROAS and discovery3. Manual Bidding & Wave SurfingThe power of manual bidding: cost cap vs. bid cap explained“Overbidding” to dominate the auction and bully competitorsTiming ad spend around consumer behavior, pay cycles, and Shopify data4. Creatives That ConvertWhy most user-generated content (UGC) is dying outTesting different formats (before/after, meme-style, image vs. video)Finding the one ad that drives scale—it's 95/5, not 80/205. Platform Myths & Meta's Real AgendaWhy you should ignore most Facebook rep suggestionsAdvantage+ and multi-advertiser placement: what to watch out forThe coming wave of Instagram Checkout and native shopping within Meta6. The AI Reality CheckWhy AI is useful—but not a magic wandHow tools like 11 Labs and Lovvo.ai can improve scale and localizationWhy human strategy still beats automation—for nowKey Takeaways for Founders & Media Buyers:Don't skip the research. It fuels every winning ad.Testing should be intentional, not guesswork.Your first goal is to find one killer creative.Strategic spend > impulsive scale.Ride the market waves—don't fight them.Follow Manel's work and insights: 

Join Heather Osgood as she sits down with Joe Cilio, CEO and Co-Founder of Forever Dog Productions, to explore how the network has evolved over the past decade—most recently with a bold pivot into video podcasting. Joe takes us behind the curtain on the logistical and strategic challenges of adding video to an audio-first operation, the monetization opportunities (and limits) across YouTube and Spotify, and why visual storytelling matters now more than ever. He also dives into Forever Dog's innovative approach to talent development, including their groundbreaking work with drag icons through Moguls of Media. In this episode, we cover: What Forever Dog's transition to video really looked like behind the scenes The monetization model for video podcasts—CPMs, simulcasts, and platform payouts How Forever Dog approaches YouTube packaging, set design, and branding Building successful partnerships with creators What a ten-year-old podcast network is doing to stay fresh in 2025 Whether you're a podcast creator, advertiser, or strategist, this episode offers a smart, forward-thinking look at where the industry is headed.

Send us a textCPMs are the great equalizer of marketing media. To make great decisions, you need to know how to calculate them and when to use them.In this episode of the Maven Marketing Podcast, Brandon Welch and Caleb Agee break down one of the most misunderstood metrics in all of advertising: CPM, or Cost Per Thousand (impressions). The “M” is from the Latin word “Mille” meaning thousand. Marketers love to talk about targeting and impressions, but without understanding what CPM tells you, you might be overspending without realizing it.Learn how to calculate CPMs accurately, what counts as a good CPM across different platforms, and—most importantly—how to compare medias with each other.You'll learn:The real definition of CPM and how to use itWhy CPMs are crucial in Tomorrow MarketingAverage CPM benchmarks across digital, TV, streaming, and out-of-homeThe danger of random impressions and why repetition winsHow to ask the right questions when buying mediaIf you're running any kind of advertising campaign—this is the marketing math that can make or break your ROI.Subscribe for new episodes every Monday, and email us your marketing questions at MavenMonday@frankandmaven.comFREE MARKETING AUDIT: MavenMarketingAudit.comOur Website: https://frankandmaven.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frankandmavenmarketing/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@frankandmavenTwitter: https://twitter.com/frankandmavenLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/frank-and-maven/Host: Brandon WelchCo-Host: Caleb AgeeExecutive Producer: Carter BreauxAudio/Video Producer: Nate the Camera GuyDo you have a marketing problem you'd like us to help solve? Send it to MavenMonday@FrankandMaven.com!Get a copy of our Best-Selling Book, The Maven Marketer Here: https://a.co/d/1clpm8a

Next in Media spoke to Marc McCollum. Chief Innovation Officer at Raptive, about how smaller publishers are enduring in the face of AI search, Google search changes, and the supposed death of cookies.

CTV ad revenue is projected to reach $28 billion this year, but 39% of advertisers still cite transparency in ad placements as a major concern. Is Connected TV delivering on its promises or falling short?This episode, Elena and Angela are joined by Chief Media Officer Catherine Walstad to discuss the state of CTV advertising. They explore the maturing optimism around streaming TV and share practical advice for navigating this complex but essential channel. Learn why CTV shouldn't be viewed as either brand or performance marketing, but as a powerful complement to linear TV.Topics covered: [01:00] CTV usage and ad spend projections through 2026[03:30] Current marketing sentiment around CTV advertising[06:00] Defining CTV, OTT, and streaming terminology[09:00] Is CTV delivering on its ROI promises?[11:00] CTV's role in both brand and performance marketing[18:00] Why CTV advertising has high CPMs and hidden costs[21:00] CTV measurement challenges and solutions[27:00] How fragmentation impacts advertisers and viewers[29:30] Emerging CTV trends like shoppable and interactive ads  To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast or subscribe to our newsletter at marketingarchitects.com/newsletter.  Resources: 2025 eMarketer Article: https://www.emarketer.com/content/5-things-know-about-ctv-advertising-platforms2025 Ad Exchanger Article: https://www.adexchanger.com/tv/buyers-say-ctvs-transparency-problem-remains-a-roadblock-to-investment/ Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

In this episode, we talk about the big mistake many brands make when planning and measuring their ads. Our guest, Chelsey, explains why you can't measure awareness, consideration, and conversions the same way. She breaks it down simply: Awareness ads should be measured by how many people see them (reach, impressions, CPMs). Conversion ads should be measured by results (sales, revenue, ROAS). Chelsey also talks about how brands can estimate the impact of awareness ads on conversions using smart data models. Plus, she shares tools like GA4 and media mix modeling (MMM) that help brands understand which ads are working best. Tune in to learn how to fix your media planning and get better results from your campaigns!

On the podcast, I talk with Ashley about what makes Google App campaigns a powerful growth tool, proven optimization strategies, and how lower CPMs aren't always the win they seem to be.Top Takeaways: